Death of Salesman by Arthur Miller Essay -- Death Salesman Arthur Mill

Death of Salesman by Arthur MillerThe elegy controlms to simply conclude the play at the funeral and letus see the other characters view of events with some retrospect.However, with closer scrutiny, we see that old issues and resentmentsare still very prevalent.The elegy can be split into two halves. The inaugural half sees Charley, bullet, Linda and Happy over Willys grave. Each character is unique intheir perspective at this point, reflecting Willys own change ofperspective towards the end of play and reminding us of several themesin the text.Happy still clings to the memory of Willy Loman as the successfulsalesman and general good man. Indeed, he holds this view with someferocity. He tries to stop Biff being negative about his father (thestage directions include almost ready to fight Biff infuriated) andhis last words are ones of defianceIm gonna show you and everybody else that Willy Loman did non die invein this is where Im gonna win it for himThis seems rather absurd to th e reader as it is clear now that theAmerican Dream for the Loman family is just that- a dream. The undischarged failure of his father and the collapse of the family showthat the dogmatic pursuit of success is fruitless and even dangerous.Happy is a very apt name for the son who tries to be happy and showa brave face even when things have collapsed around him. Otherexamples of this include Happy rallying Biff both when they lambast aboutsetting up business together and when Happy tries to make Biff attractwomen at the restaurant in Scene 2. Happy too represents the side ofWilly that he was most used to (Happy, unlike Biff, lived with Willyday to day and so was more indoctrinated to the lies and... ...wife. Instead of seeing the inevitable, as Charley does, orbeing someway released like Biff, she can only see things in terms ofmoney and time, like Willy used to obsess over- He even finished withthe dentist.The second half of the Requiem is dedicated to Linda. It is quite hardto un derstand. She says that she cant cry but then seconds latershe is sobbing more fully. Why is this? Maybe telling her truefeelings to Willy instead of suppressing them like when he was animatedreleases her, but she keeps repeating were free. As she whispersthis she seems to be on a higher plane and connecting with Willy.This, however, is open to interpretation and all we can safely say isthat the Requiem releases the pressure that was mounting in the Lomanhousehold in possibly the only way it could with the realisation ofthe failure of the American Dream.